The Leading Deacon- Summer April Leading Deacon | Page 3

Shannon Ashford
A SSIST A NT DIRECTOR , STUDENT
ORG A NIZ A TIONS A ND PROGR A MS
A few years ago, I moved to Chicago to pursue a
career in comedy. During my time in the city, I
performed and wrote for several different sketch
groups. As any comedian will tell you, there
aren’t too many rules in comedy, but there is
often a lot of collaboration. Someone will pitch
an idea, and other members of the group will
comment on how to make it funnier- if that’s
even possible. It takes a lot of courage to share
a thought and subject it to the critiques of
others; equally, there’s a certain bravery in
offering insight on someone else’s idea.
Sometimes that feedback fails.
Sometimes it will help transform an initial pitch
into a funny/beautiful/moving piece of art, but a
lot of times it won’t.
“Challenging the Process” also requires courage.
Sometimes feedback on ideas will improve upon
existing methods, and sometimes they may not.
But that’s why it’s called Challenging the
Process, not Changing the Process. Every new
idea is a fledgling concept that can only
blossom into an effective solution when leaders
have the courage to voice their thoughts, secure
in the understanding that success- like in sketch
comedy- is only achieved by being unafraid to
fail.